Thursday, April 24, 2008

84 days, 4 countries, over two dozen cities, countless sketchy meals, two heat rashes, one haircut, twice being called an Osama Bin Laden look-a-like, 10 brushes with death along Vietnamese and Cambodian roads, multiple shark sightings, over fifty hours on buses, a baker's dozen flights, countless new friends, a new cell phone, four potential future Mrs. Augusts, 60+ blog entries, two private karaoke sessions, one eaten goat's brain, one eaten bat, 9 eaten frogs, a billion red hot chilis, 10+ hours of Vietnamese classes, 30+ hours of teaching Vietnamese kids, one night sleeping on bamboo above jumping fish, one dog bite, one soccer match, 14 mosquito bites (with no malaria pills), two cockroaches landing in my hair, two nights of sleeping on a filthy bus (including last night when a woman literally had her kid take a whiz on the floor under my bed), 1+ containers of Gold Bond, twice being caught in a monsoon while on motorbikes, miles of walking with a 80+ pounds of luggage, 6 read books, one heartbreaking hockey playoff series, a trimester for Kathy and Zev, one de-plucked chicken, one free ride in Beijing from a stranger I met on a plane, a hundred offers of drugs and sex on the streets, one world championship of Ping Pong, one new suit, 50+ comments on my blog from my mother, over a thousand emails from friends (and dozens of offers from strangers who want me to buy Viagra), 1500 photographs, two new pants, four new shirts, one awkward date, three days of scuba diving, and one birthday later, I'm officially in Hanoi. Ahoy Hanoi!